The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on 5 differing perspectives from art experts during an important auction. The WSJ article looks at perspectives from a seller, and art adviser, an auctioneers, an artist and a gallery director.
Some interesting outlooks indeed. Below is the perspective from the art adviser, follow the link the below to view the other 4 professionals view of the auction scene.
The WSJ reports
Source: The Wall Street JournalTHE ADVISER
Patrick Legant, 39, former senior director of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby's, now advises European and U.S. collectors privately.
AT STAKE: Mr. Legant's job—to scout and shop for modern art on behalf of a handful of collectors—ultimately boils down to "quality control," he said. Rather than turn up and bid themselves, Mr. Legant's clients enlisted him to cherry-pick the best pieces in the London catalogs and then go see if the artworks' conditions and asking prices made them appear more tempting or just overpriced. For him, these sales were about potentially fulfilling a narrow wish list—and taking home tailored market intelligence.
GAME PLAN: Berlin-based Mr. Legant began preparing for these sales three months ago in New York by asking auction specialists there for clues about their top offerings for London. In mid-January, he began checking the houses' websites daily because he knew they usually post their catalog items there long before the printed versions hit the mail. Once up, he scoured the offerings and mailed dossiers on a dozen or so pieces to his collectors. He arrived in London a couple of days before the sales to view these art contenders and, as a result, whittled the list to five because the rest seemed less exciting when viewed up close. He eventually got marching orders to bid—up to a predetermined price—on a couple of pieces in the Impressionist and modern art sales, including a work by Paul Klee. (Often, collectors ask their advisers to call from the saleroom whenever their hoped-for pieces come up for bid, but Mr. Legant said his clients are content to be updated afterward.)
EXPECTATIONS: Mr. Legant said last fall's strong auction performance convinced him that he might face tough competition in London—but in the end he didn't even get to raise a paddle. During Sotheby's Feb. 5 sale, three bidders vied for the Klee watercolor he wanted, 1920s "Poisonous Berries." Klee, a Swiss-German artist who died in 1940, is known for his colorful geometric abstracts and isn't as heavily traded as his Bauhaus colleague Wassily Kandinsky. Mr. Legant was impressed by this example's fresh condition and "beautiful" composition. Sotheby's offered it for between $645,000 and $965,000, but the adviser figured it would top its high estimate, and it wound up selling for $1.3 million—more than his client wanted to pay.
HIGHLIGHT: Edgar Degas. Mr. Legant said he was pleasantly surprised by the crisp quality of an Edgar Degas pastel of a bather at Sotheby's, a piece that hadn't stood out for him initially. Although he didn't bid, he felt validated when "After the Bath" wound up selling for $12.2 million, double its high estimate. As he left Sotheby's evening sale, he thought, "That went pretty well."
ARTIST TO WATCH:Egon Schiele. This Vienna Expressionist's searing portraits on paper have long been beloved by collectors in Europe and the U.S., but Mr. Legant noticed an uptick in interest among Asian collectors this time around. He said that's because auctioneers and dealers have finally convinced Asian buyers that Schiele's works on paper merit the million-dollar price tags more commonly reserved for paintings. Sotheby's sold a $12.4 million pencil-on-paper work to an Asian buyer on Feb. 5.
DISAPPOINTMENT: Max Beckmann. Sotheby's wanted at least $8 million for the German Expressionist's 1949 double portrait, "Before the Ball—Two Women with a Cat," but Mr. Legant said he doubted the work would fetch that asking price because collectors prefer his early-period paintings in Amsterdam or his war-era works in Frankfurt over his postwar paintings in New York like "Ball." Sure enough, the work garnered no bids and went unsold.
ABOUT TOWN: Besides the sales, Mr. Legant also made time to see Edouard Manet's exhibit at the Royal Academy, among other things; he and a friend, Sims Reed print gallery owner Lyndsey Ingram, threw a party for friends at her house on Saturday. "It's our annual thing," he said.
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